Google Pixel And Pixel XL Pros And Cons: Impressions

Earlier this month Google has revealed its first pixel phones in an event held at San Francisco and has launched Google Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones which runs on Google’s latest Android 7.0 (Nougat) operating system out of the box.

Google Pixel is a compact phone with 5 inch display as compared to 5.5 inch display on Pixel XL and the Google Pixel also packs a smaller 2,770 mAh battery, compared to the 3,450 mAh battery on Pixel XL.

Apart from that, Google Pixel and Google Pixel XL are having exactly similar specs. Both the phones are featuring Snapdragon 821 processor, 4GB of RAM, 12.3 Megapixel rear camera and a 8 Megapixel front selfie camera.

These phones are available in 32GB and 128GB storage models and the pricing of these smartphones for India and U.S. is as follow:

Phones

Storage

Indian Pricing

US Pricing

Google Pixel

32GB

Rs. 57,000/-

$649

128GB

Rs. 66,000/-

$749

Google Pixel XL

32GB

Rs. 67,000/-

$769

128GB

Rs. 76,000/-

$869

Google Pixel And Pixel XL Pros And Cons

Google Pixel And Pixel XL Pros

Display

Google Pixel comes with a 5” Full HD AMOLED display with a pixel density of 441ppi. Whereas, the Pixel XL has a 5.5” Quad HD AMOLED display with a pixel density of 534ppi. Both the phones uses a 2.5D curved panel and there is Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection as well.

Performance

The devices are powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor which is one of the best mobile processor till date. Along with that, there is Adreno 530 GPU and 4GB of RAM.

Software

Like always Google devices are the first devices to run on latest Android OS and these devices comes running on Google’s Android 7.0 (Nougat) operating system. However, LG V20 was the first one to run Android 7.0.

Google Pixel and Pixel XL are also the first phones coming with Google Assistant built-in.

Camera

Google has equipped Pixel phones with a 12.3 Megapixel rear camera which uses phase detection autofocus and laser detection autofocus. It has f/2.0 aperture and DxOMark has given it a score of 89 which is best score ever given to any smartphone camera, and it is capable for recording 4K videos at 30fps. Up front, it is having an 8 Megapixel fixed-focus camera with f/2.4 aperture.

Storage

It is available in 32GB and 128GB storage models. But the good thing is that Google is offering unlimited cloud storage for full resolution photos and videos.

Battery

Both the devices Pixel and Pixel XL come with 2,770 mAh and 3,450 mAh batteries, respectively. And, both the devices also support fast charging and Google claims it is capable of providing up-to 7 hours of use from just 15 minutes of charging.

Build

The build quality of Google Pixel and Pixel XL is quite fantastic. These devices are having aluminium body along with glass on the rear side. At the front it is having Corning Gorilla Glass 4 for display protection.

Others

It has NFC, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth v4.2, USB Type-C, 3.5mm headphone jack. There is a fingerprint scanner also called as Imprint.

Design

Google Pixel And Pixel XL has a pretty unusual design going-on at the rear side. There is metal along with glass, which some may like and some may not like.

Google Pixel And Pixel XL Cons

No Memory Expansion

Google Pixel and Pixel XL comes in 32GB and 128GB storage models. Plus, Google is also providing unlimited storage for photos and videos at full resolution. However, there is no option for memory expansion. So, you can’t add memory card.

Not Water And Dust Resistant

Recently devices like Samsung Galaxy S7, S7 Edge, Apple iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are IP68 certified which means it is well protected from dust and can be immersed in water. But, sadly Google Pixel smartphones are IP53 certified which indicates it’s not completely dust protected and can only handle light water spray vertically.

Pricing

Like Nexus devices, audience were expecting the Pixel phones to be priced very aggressively. But running latest hardware and software, Google has priced the Pixel and Pixel XL very high competing with Samsung Galaxy S7 / S7 Edge and Apple iPhone 7 / 7 Plus.

Moreover, the Indian pricing for the Google Pixel and Pixel XL is even higher. E.g. the $649 Pixel 32GB variant which translates to Rs. 43,278/- is priced at Rs. 57,000/-in India.